Milford Sound

We arrived yesterday to Milford Sound. I cannot express hoe beautiful it is. I am the one that is always saying "pullover I wnt to take a photo. Yesterday even Pat was asking to stop. There are hundreds if not thousands of waterfalls. Today we are going on a morning kayak where we will kayak under a waterfall. The air is cold, beyond crisp so it will be an adventure.  Yesterday morning the road was closed due to snowy conditions.  Wish us luck on our drive out. We opted not to have chains but another night here is not so bad.

Black water rafting

Here is a photo log of our great Black water rafting adventure in the glow worm caves in Waitomo on the North Island.  Yes, that was a few weeks ago, but we had technical difficulties getting the photos onto the iPad for sharing.  

This was one of our most thrilling adventures, one a bit more adventurous than we expected!  Gayle was glad she learned about the eels in the caves AFTER  the trip! We met a nice young Dutch couple on a several month honeymoon trip around the world... They were on their 3rd or 4th month of travel and having a blast!  

In the last few pictures you can see us emerging from the cave at the end of the trip, we felt like a seal team coming back from a successful mission!

We survived, just about out

My hands were freezing here

Exiting the cave 

Look like a bunch of seals

Thanksgiving Bash

It was Thanksgiving here but a day early for other American friends. We had some folks from England here that we met on our Aquapackers boat in Abel Tasman. Caroline and John are from outside London and are leaving Kiwi land today. They had so many funny stories to tell about their trip. Two days ago their 4 hour return trip from Milford Sound ended up taking 9 hours due to a fatal accident ahead. Their bus driver was forced to drive south towards the southern tip of NZ to get around. Luckily he was an amazing driver who kept everyone happy, well toliet accessible, supplied with fast food, and safe. 

Beverly and Rick were also invited to our Thansksgiving bash. We  met them on the ship and became close friends as they acquired our extra luggage we used to haul essentials for Alicia our young friend living in Hawaii.  He is a retired Air Force officer and reminds us of Bruce Burris. There "home" is in Sisters Oregon. They are spending 5 months here and then catching the same ship back to Seattle in the spring. HThey are amazing having lived for 12 years in Turkey, 5 or so in France, Bankock. They purchased a sailboat in Turkey and sailed all around the area for the years there. Keep in mind that Beverly is in a wheel chair having lost the use of her legs in a plane crash in the Phillipines. Rick told the story about living in France near Toulouse and dropping by the government office. He happened to ask about income taxes and the clerk said "Oh yes you must fill out the tax forms each year. You must see the tax office next door. I will see if he is available". They had been living there several years and had only filled out US forms.  Rick asked to use the restroom to think about what to do. While in the WC he decided to climb out the window which ended the problem. It was a strategic retreat.

We are hoping John and Caroline can visit us in Paris next year. Here are some photos of our evening...

John and Caroline

Rick and Beverly

Night view out our porch using my tripod

Video from our porch

View of lake Wakatipu in the Queenstown area. I wake up each morning around 5am to witness the sunrise. Each morning it is completely different. Last night we got a fresh powdering of snow on the mountain tops. Some of this area was in the movie Lord do the Rings. Click to view YouTube video

A wandering we will go

A wandering we will go. Went for a drive to walk on the trails outside of Glenorcy. The closer we got the wetter and breezier it became. But the drive and the views were magnificent. Take a look! We also stopped at the home of some folks from Oregon that we met on the cruise down. She is in a wheel chair and he is retired Air Force. They cruised from Seattle to Auckland and then rented a place for 6 months and then will catch the same boat as it re-positions back to Seattle.  They have lived in Turkey for 12 years, 5 in France near Toulouse and other places. Amazing folks. We might see them Saturday for a exPat Thanksgiving.

Queenstown WOW

I cannot even imagine how many photos I have taken while being here. Beyond sheer beauty there is also so much to do especially if your extreme minded. Yesterday everyone besides me went on ziplines for 1500 feet. I walked up the mountain and did photographs. Today we visited a really cute rather Wild West type town called Arrowtown. But before that we visited the home of Bungie jumping. While we stayed on the ground, the photos were great. The coast of each jump is $200 less any videos or photos you purchase. Then we went wine tasting looking for the perfect Pinot. Now we are home in our luxury apartment overlooking the lake and the mountains. Showers have started but we have wine and snackies to eat.

Daring the weather and losing

We decided to brave a 30 minute drive to the Franz Glacier in the rain. The rain increased causing waterfall on both sides of the road. Most of the photos below were out the windows as we were driving. The river, a turquoise blue two days ago was an angry gray. On the return, part of the hillside collapsed.  Back at the BnB for a rest.

Building an Ark

For the last day and a half it has been raining and I mean raining hard. We are surrounded by puddles and those by aspiring ponds. Fortunately we are in a really nice bed and breakfast, a town with one good restaurant and enough wine to last another day. Last night at wine and cheese time our hosts Lea and Dave told us to unplug all devices because a huge thunderstorm was suppose to strike the region. Besides undulating periods of torrential rain and just hard rain, we missed the fireworks. 

We have met all kinds of interesting people at the BnB. Dutch, Brazilian, English, American. The 20 something American gal was traveling all over the country alone, sans GPS, and just winging it, or water winging now. Tomorrow were off to Queenstown and at least two days of good weather. PS, the local news here forecasted nearly 9 inches of rain in this region this weekend!

If we miss the glacier here, hopefully we will catch it at Mt Cook.

Photos of what we have now and what we are missing:

Abel Tasman National Park

What an adventure walking one of NZ great walking trails or tramping, called Abel Tasman.  We had a water taxi take us out about half way and we walked to Anchorage bay were our boats were moored.  A dingy landed and we boarded our boat.  We had reserved 2 private rooms in the bow of the boat. They were actually roomy for such a small boat. We talked with Caroline and John and a nice German couple till 11 pm. 

There was 18 people aboard bit two of them were really special,  Caroline and John from England. They will be in Queenstown while were there so we have invited them to Thanksgiving dinner. Who knows what tham might look like.  I imagine Pat has a heavenly vision of that.

Photos below represent a few of our multitude of OMG photos we took

     Note they take us out, loaded in the boats, pulled by a tractor to the water.The last one is called Apple rocks that is split. He said it was in The Lord of the Rings but he might have been kidding.  The Maori name for this rock is Toko Ngawha which means "burst open rock"

Dingy to pick us up

Rainbow in the morning. We missed almost all of the rain.

Wellington and Headed to the South Island

Lucky us, Wellington was not as windy as it was the days before. Wellington is known for winds and rough seas. We had an enjoyable sel guided art walk around the waterfront and city. We fell into a tribal celebration. Apparently three tribes were rowing into the bay to reenact making peace between tribes. There was lots of chanting, Haka, and paddle clacking.

We accidentally ran into a lovely farmer and food vendor's market. There was southern BBQ, Moroccan,Turkish, Indian, German, and all of the typical kinds. Gayle and I split an Indian Roti Butter chicken sandwich and listened to a street singer that could have one a place on American Idol.

Several of the pictures below are of art and typical Sunday life in New Zealand.  Then we took the tram to the botanical gardens and savered the afternoon sun on the waterfront below.  The last series of photos are of our ferry ride to Picton where the ferry lands. Before we left at 6:15am, I got a photo of Pat sitting by the window of their cabin reading. I am not sure if she was guarding the car or making sure we didn't leave without her.

Packed and ready to go...

Hitching a ride on the ferry south:

Travel day, Windy day

Today we headed south to the southern tip of the north island of New Zealand. Last night the thunder ripped across our motel seeming to boom simultaneously in wide arcs.  When it rained, it rained in horizontal walls of water. I suspect we witnessed 1/2 inch of rain in 5 minutes.  When morning sprung, it was dark and windy, growing in intensity as we drove. Trees were down and portions of the road looked like a defective wood chipper was tossing tree parts everywhere on road. We stopped for lunch in a Norwegian town called Dannevirke. The lunch was marginal so we thought we would look for dessert some place else. The Pat began yelling and ran across the street and hugged Liz and John, some of Caro's family.  We sat and drank coffee and marveled at what a small world it is. They live near Christchurch and invited us for our departure dinner on Pat's birthday.

After that we dropped into another wine area and did a bit of tasting before we arrived at windy Wellington. Oh and sorry kiwi drivers for driving on the wrong side. I drove today for an hour or so.

Wine tasting in Hasting near Napier

We rented bikes today and rode 12 miles to 4 wineries. For a short distance it was on fresh coarse gravel and I started to get worried my dental fillings would fall out. Then it turned into hard pack earth and we whizzed down the trail. I of coarse was the slowest whizzer. We met Marla and Greg at the first winery and became buds. They are from Carlsbad which is very close to where we are wintering near San Diego. She is a consults on diet so I was all over that. The wines were pretty good, not stellar by our standards.  We bought a merlot and a port wine. The latter is for our time in chilly queenstown. The last photo was of a portion a Christmas tree set up in a winery.  It was just weird to think of Christmas and warm sunny days. As soon as we finished we raced across town to buy olives for pat. Our car was  leaning into ever turn and the gps was studdering instructions. Even the kiwi cops couldn't catch us. We made it by 5 minutes.